Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Here are the entries for this month's "Colors of Love" challenge!
VOTING WILL BE OPEN FROM MARCH 9TH UNTIL MARCH 15. Please choose your favorite entry
from the images or links
below, then select your choice in the blog poll that will appear on the right sidebar during the days that voting is open.

Click on the image mosaic or links below to learn more about each entry and see larger, detailed images of each piece.

Monday, March 6, 2017

Lea Paličková is the 2017 Rising Star!

First
if you could provide a little background such as where you are from or
live now and what your work or career is. Your Etsy shop profile
mentions you study geography, are there any favorite places or
influences that sparked your interest in that subject?

I come
from Czech Republic, the home of well-known Czech glass beads. I’m just
a regular girl that grew up in the country. I came to the „big city“
after getting accepted to the University, where I chose to study nature
and geography. I wouldn’t say that anything specific led me this way,
I’ve been just interested in all the things around me. I’ve always been
interested mainly in the abiotic part of nature, and I’m still
fascinated by weather… And now, when my university studies are over,
this subject of knowledge makes my living. And what do I do when I come
home from work? Beading, of course…

In your shop you offer many
wonderful pieces of beadwork. How long have you been beading and how
much time weekly do you devote to your craft?

I started with
beading when I was a young girl, when I was stringing my mom’s and
grandma’s beads. As I said before, my country is one of the biggest
beads producer. Almost in every house you can find in the attic a huge
chest full of old beads… So, it was easy to start playing with beads. I
started beadweaving after years, approx. in 2009. This technique charmed
me so much that even now I am able to spend most of my time beading.
It’s hard to say how much time a week I spend beading, it depends on
many conditions. I would say I spend with beading about 10-15 hours a
week.

Do you have friends or relatives who also work with seed beads, or are there any beading societies or groups you belong to?

No one from my family is beading. If someone beads something, the
initial impulse comes from me. Quite often my sister-in-law asks me to
bring some beads along, because she wants to do something for herself.
She uses my tutorials to create some floral jewelry.
On the other
hand, beading is quite popular in Czech Republic and I’ve met a lot of
interesting and inspirational people thanks to beading. Beading
societies, like you can know from US, aren’t common here. Here it’s more
a question of arranging meeting bead friends for a dinner or a glass of
beer and then beading together all night long.

Your work shows a wonderful interpretation of nature, is that the main source of your inspiration?

Yes, mainly I’m trying to find my muse in nature. This is the reason
why I enjoy working with nature materials the most. I’m not good at
using shiny Swarovski crystals, but psst don’t tell anybody. When I
walk outside, I’m trying to perceive all colors and shapes of nature
surrounding us. My most favorite season of year is definitely autumn.
You can find everything in it: beautiful color transitions and often
unsuspected color combinations, mysterious morning fogs and first
hoarfrost as well. Anywhere around us is a lot of inspiration, you just
have to keep your eyes open.

What artists or bead workers do you admire or feel have influenced your work?

I’m trying, as I always did, not to get influenced by other authors.
Because of it, I use Pinterest as little as possible. I would like my
work to reflect just my ideas and moods
However, there is a lot of
beaders that I adore greatly. One of many is for example Kinga Nichols
with her color and material combinations, Apollinariya Koprivnik with
her sparkling treasures, queen of sea urchins Joanne Zammit and I can’t
forget to mention my best-bead-friend Denisa Kangas

What are some of your favorite materials to work with?

I love to work with any natural material. Gemstone cabochons, druzies,
any kind of fossils, pearls and shells, wooden beads, ceramics and so
on… I rather work with irregularly shaped material. Glitter and
perfectly polished surfaces gets me a little insecure, because I’m not
always sure how to work with them to get the perfect result. I really
love combination of matt and gloss and Czech glass beads.

Your
patterns in your shop are lovely. I especially like the way you use the
two holed beads in your designs. What are some of the joys you have
experienced or challenges you have faced selling on Etsy?

The
greatest joy is when you receive positive feedback of your work. Like
when customer send me a picture of finished piece of jewelry made with
my tutorial.

Where do you see your work with bead weaving evolving in the future?

My big dream is to have my own studio – room just for me and my craft
passions. I hope it will be soon, because we are planning reconstruction
with my boyfriend and I hope he will be kind enough to let one room for
me in our future home
Anyway in this „dream studio“ I would like to
have a craft oven for making ceramic, glass or even copper enamel. I
would love to create my own components for my beaded jewelry.

About Etsy Beadweavers

Etsy Beadweavers is a group of beaders who market their creations on Etsy.com. The Beadweavers' creations are different from many of the traditional beaded items, in that they are woven from hundreds or thousands of tiny beads to create intricate designs and pictures. These weavings take the form of both art and jewelry. Each piece takes many hours to complete, with some larger pieces taking weeks or even months.

This blog is devoted to the creations of this group of talented artisans.